ADFGVX Decoding | Step by Step Tuturial (?)
THE BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS, SO READ 15 CHAPTERS OF CONCEITED SOULS BEFORE PROCEEDING. I DO NOT WANT TO SPOIL THE FUN.
Before we start, here you have Wikipedia page about ADFGVX cipher
STEP 1. Write down the code.
AF DD FG GD AF AA AG DA FG DX XG XF FX DF XA FG XG XX XX FX
STEP 2. You must determine the transposition code. In our case it's "HELLO", (we use 'HELO' to code, since the letters in the key can't double)
H E L O
STEP 3. You must arrange letters in the key in an alphabetical order.
E H L O
STEP 4. You count the letters in the coded message. (40 in our case.) Now, we have to write them DOWN in the 4 columns. (40/4=10 ⇒ 10 letters per column.)
E H L O
A A X F
F A G G
D A X X
D G F G
F D F X
G A X X
G F D X
D G F X
A D X F
F X A X
STEP 5. Now, you have to arrange the columns, back to the position, according to the transposition key. (In that case, you only switch column "H" i column "E")
H E L O
A A X F
A F G G
A D X X
G D F G
D F F X
A G X X
F G D X
G D F X
D A X F
X F A X
STEP 6. Now, you write down letters in ROWS. (One letter of message is coded with 2 letters of code, so I wrote them down in pairs.)
AA XF AF GG AD XX GD FG DF FX AG XX FG DX GD FX DA XF XF AX
STEP 7. Right now, we need the Polybius square to decode the message. (In the story, they figured out it was the origin version of the Polybius square, but I made it easier and used the default version from Wikipedia. (Link at the beginning.) Also, Wikipedia may be smart enough to actually use the origin version, so don't rant at me, please)
| A | D | F | G | X | |
| A | B | T | A | L | P |
| D | D | H | O | Z | K |
| F | Q | F | V | S | N |
| G | G | J/I | C | U | X |
| X | M | R | E | W | Y |
STEP 8. Now, we just navigate the code letters, and changed them accordingly with the right row and column.
AA — "B"
XF — "E"
AF — "A"
GG — "U"
AD — "T"
XX — "Y"
A/N I was seriously and positively shocked that my lovely readers tried to break it. Anyway, some of you wanted me to explain how to decode it, I guess it's good enough, right? All I can say, the ciphers are going to be more and more complicated, so it's not going to be as easy as it was in that case. Nonetheless, I hope that some of you will try to decrypt it. ^^
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